NFL Player Eugene Monroe Donates $80,000 to Medical Cannabis Research

The Baltimore Ravens left tackle is sponsoring research on the impact of cannabinoid therapy on NFL players.

NFL players risk getting taken out by CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) every season. The awareness for CTE has increased so much that Will Smith made a movie addressing the disease called Concussion. Doctors and scientists are taking the research for the disease seriously, and have gone as far as creating different types of therapy for the degenerative disease.

Now, via a press release—Baltimore Ravens left tackle Eugene Monroe announced that he has made an $80,000 donation to research at the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins to examine the impact of cannabinoid therapy on NFL players. CW Botanicals and The Realm of Caring partnered to announce the donation, and made it clear in the press release that Monroe can’t “use cannabinoid products and is instead prescribed opioids to manage his chronic pain from sports-related injuries.”

This is because of the NFL’s anti-cannabis policy, which creates difficulties for players to speak on and support the therapeutic uses of cannabis.

In the press release issued, it was noted that “Despite the risks, on March 9 Eugene became the first active NFL player to call on the NFL to remove marijuana from the banned substances list; fund medical marijuana research, especially as it relates to CTE; and to urge the NFL to stop overprescribing opioids.”

Although Eugene cannot partake and benefit from cannabidiol (CBD) for pain management, the left tackle is hoping that his donation and support can sway the NFL towards changing their anti-cannabis policy, and eventually acknowledge the plant as an adequate option for treatment.

published on May 14, 2016

MP Wilkinson

MP Wilkinson is a writer and DJ who enjoys all the finer things in life like dusty vinyl and chicken tacos. Follow him on IG @mpthegod.